Facing the Flag eBook

I therefore recount how about eight o’clock
on the previous evening I was walking along the edge
of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed me, going
towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from
behind; how having been gagged, bound, and blindfolded,
I felt myself carried off and lowered into a hole
with another person whom I thought I recognized from
his groans as Thomas Roch; how I soon felt that I
was on board a boat of some description and naturally
concluded that it was the tug; how I felt it sink;
how I felt a shock that threw me violently against
the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and lost
consciousness, since I remember nothing further.

Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a
stern look in his eyes and a frown on his brow; and
yet he can have no reason that authorizes him to doubt
my word.

“You claim that three men threw themselves upon
you?” he asks.

“Yes. I thought they were some of your
people, for I did not see them coming. Who were
they?”

“Strangers, as you must have known from their
language.”

“They did not utter a word!”

“Have you no idea as to their nationality?”

“Not the remotest.”

Do you know what were their intentions in entering
the cavern?”

“I do not.”

“What is your opinion about it?”

“My opinion, Mr. Serko? I repeat I thought
they were two or three of your pirates who had come
to throw me into the lagoon by the Count d’Artigas’
orders, and that they were going to do the same thing
to Thomas Roch. I supposed that having obtained
his secrets—­as you informed me was the
case—­you had no further use for him and
were about to get rid of us both.”

“Is it possible, Mr. Hart, that you could have
thought such a thing!” continued Serko in his
sarcastic way.

“I did, until having been able to remove the
bandage from my eyes, I perceived that I was in the
tug.”

“It was not the tug, but a boat of the same
kind that had got through the tunnel.”

“A submarine boat?” I ejaculate.

“Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was
to kidnap you and Thomas Roch.”

“Kidnap us?” I echo, continuing to feign
surprise.

“And,” adds Engineer Serko, “I want
to know what you think about the matter.”

“What I think about it? Well, it appears
to me that there is only one plausible explanation
possible. If the secret of your retreat has not
been betrayed—­and I cannot conceive how
you could have been betrayed or what imprudence you
or yours could have committed—­my opinion
is that this submarine boat was exploring the bottom
of the sea in this neighborhood, that she must have
found her way into the tunnel, that she rose to the
surface of the lagoon, that her crew, greatly surprised
to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern, seized
hold of the first persons they came across, Thomas
Roch and myself, and others as well perhaps, for of
course I do not know——­”